A recent report by PhoneFactor alleges that IT authentication and security experts nowadays have gotten greater online threat concerns and lesser confidence with their respective organizations' safety compared to 2008. The research firm asked more than two hundred fifty IT professionals regarding possible solutions, authentication, and threats to modern-day security systems. These are their findings: 

• About a third of respondents believed that malware contagions on computers will pose the biggest outside hazard to a corporation's IT security for the coming year. Meanwhile, sixteen percent alleged that mobile device malware presented the greatest threat instead. Together, about fifty-eight percent of the surveyed individuals thought that malware attacks on either mobile devices or desktop computers were the biggest and most dangerous security hazard at the present time.

• Meanwhile, poor password choice and policies ranked second at twenty-eight percent. Furthermore, about three-fourths or seventy-two percent of participants claimed that the username and password system is a woefully inadequate method in restricting access to sensitive company information.

• Merely thirty-five percent of volunteers are convinced that their organization's current authentication and security system is assuredly or tremendously safe, which is a sixteen to seventeen percent drop from 2008's survey. It may have something to do with the continued rise of security threats and online hazards currently plaguing the IT security industry. At the very least, many IT professionals are aware of just how dire the modern-day IT security situation actually is.

• Two-thirds or sixty-seven percent of participating businesses ranked IT security as among the highest items in their usual list of priorities, which is a fifteen to sixteen percent growth over 2008's survey regarding the same topic.

• According to twenty-five percent of the respondents, their data or network had been compromised within the period between last year's survey and this year's survey, which is twenty percent more than those affected last year.

• Fifty-seven percent of the participants claimed that most employees would rather use a cellphone over two-factor authentication gadgets like a smart card, a grid card, a USB token, and a security token. Over seventy percent of respondents agree that the security token might as well be one of the top ten worst gadgets ever made.

The PhoneFactor survey demonstrates that IT security desperately needs to be enhanced and improved now more than ever. The significant leap of malware incidents justifies this necessary change in security policies.